The Top 10 World's Richest Entrepreneurs

Diana Ransom is features editor at Inc. She has been covering the never-dull world of small business and entrepreneurship for years at a variety of publications, including The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney.com, the New York Daily News, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

While many entrepreneurs would say money isn't important, many others want to get rich. If the path of other famed entrepreneurs is any judge, you may have made the right career choice.
Of the top 21 richest people on Forbes's newly released list of the wealthiest people in the world, 10 are entrepreneurs. Just how rich are they? Take a gander below:

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10. Mark Zuckerberg - $ 28.5 billion

Not even 30 years old yet, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg ranks as No. 21 on the Forbes Rich List. Shares of the 10-year-old company are up about 130 percent over last year, which helped the company find much of the $19 billion it used last month to pay for the text-messaging tool, WhatsApp.

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9. Sergey Brin - $31.8 billion

Along with fellow Google co-founder Larry Page, Sergey Brin is one of the richest men in the world, according to Forbes's latest Rich List. While Brin has taken on a lesser role at Mountain View, California-based search giant than Page, Brin is seen as the main driving force behind Google Glass.

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8. Jeff Bezos - $32 billion

The Amazon.com founder's fortune skyrocketed by $13 billion in 2013, after his shares in the online retailer ballooned by 55 percent, notes Forbes. Among other initiatives, the 50-year-old entrepreneur purchased the Washington Post in October and he has been looking into delivering packages using drones. With a net worth of $32 billion, Bezos is the 18th richest person (and the 8th richest entrepreneur) in the world.

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7. Larry Page - $32.3 billion

Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page clocks in at No. 17 on Forbes's Rich List this year with a net worth of $32.3 billion. The Mountain View, California-based search giant that he and Sergey Brin (also on the list) founded in 1998, is now the second-most valuable company in the U.S., surpassing Exxon in market capitalization--that is the total value of the company's shares.

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6. Michael Bloomberg - $33 billion

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg may not be at the helm of the Big Apple any longer, but the entrepreneur still holds ample sway in both business and political circles. Just last week, he was in Washington, D.C. to help usher in President Obama's My Brother's Keeper program, an initiative focused on men of color, which is modeled after the former mayor's program in New York. Before working at city hall, the world's 16th-richest person, who has a fortune valued at $33 billion, held court at his eponymous financial software and media firm Bloomberg LP.

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5. Sheldon Adelson - $38 billion

Sheldon Adelson may have sunk millions into the failed presidential campaigns of Republican hopefuls in 2012, but with a net worth of $38 billion, he's still the eighth richest person in the world. Today, he is the chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, but he got his start in the computer trade show circuit. He and his business partners held their first COMDEX--a massive computer expo in Las Vegas--in 1979.

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4. Larry Ellison - $48 billion

One of the first entrepreneurs to give Silicon Valley its cachet, Larry Ellison is the co-founder of a company that would eventually be called Oracle Corporation. Today, he serves as the Redwood City, California-based enterprise software company's CEO. His fortune, at $48 billion, makes Ellison the fifth wealthiest person in the world, according to the latest Rich List.

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3. Amancio Ortega - $64 billion

The 77-year-old Spanish fashion executive founded the first Zara fashion clothing and accessories chain in 1975. Today, that retail chain is part of the Inditex fashion group, of which he is the founding chairman. Ortega clocked in at No. 3 on the Rich List with a fortune of $64 billion.

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2. Carlos Slim Helú - $72 billion

Carlos Slim Helú may be best known as a telecommunications executive, but the 74-year-old made his start in Mexico with a brokerage firm he opened shortly after completing college. He would then go on to invest in a variety of businesses, and acquire Telmex from the Mexican government in 1990. Today, he has a net worth of $72 billion, and came in second place overall on Forbes's Rich List.

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1. Bill Gates - $76 billion

Topping the list with a net worth of $76 billion is Bill Gates. While the 58 year-old co-founder of Microsoft has devoted more time to philanthropic activities in recent years, he plans to begin spending more time at the Redmond, Washington software giant. Gates has led the richest pack for 15 out of the last 20 years.